Light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev will look to make veteran Callum Smith his 20th knockout victim in as many fights when they meet on Saturday in Canada.

ARTUR BETERBIEV (19-0, 19 KOs)vs. CALLUM SMITH (29-1, 21 KOs)

Date: Saturday, January 13 Time: 10 pm ET / 7 pm PT (main event later in the show) Where: Videotron Centre, Quebec City, Canada TV/Streaming: ESPN, ESPN+ Division: Light Heavyweight (175 lbs.) At stake: Beterbiev’s IBF, WBC and WBO titles Odds: Beterbiev 4-1 favorite (average of multiple starts) Pound for pound: Beterbiev No. 14 Also on the card: Christian Mbilli vs. Rohan Murdock, super middleweights; Jason Moloney vs. Saúl Sánchez, bantamweight (for Moloney’s WBO title); Imam Khataev vs. Rodolfo Gomez Jr., Light Heavyweight Prediction: Beterbiev KO 9 Background: Beterbiev is scheduled to face possibly his toughest challenge to date with former 168-pound belt holder Callum Smith. The Canadian-based Russian is one of the most feared boxers in the world, as he stopped all 19 of his opponents. However, he has been relatively inactive. The 38-year-old has had just two fights since 2021, TKO victories over Joe Smith Jr. (two rounds) in June 2022 and Anthony Yarde (eight) in January last year. That means Beterbiev will have been out of the ring for a full year when he faces Smith. He won the first two of his three titles by defeating then-undefeated Oleksandr Gvozdyk in 10 rounds in 2019 and has successfully defended four times. Smith didn’t fare well the last time he faced a star, losing a one-sided decision to Canelo Alvarez in a title unification fight in December 2020. The 33-year-old Englishman has won both of his fights since then. . , knockouts over second-tier opponents Lenin Castillo in September 2021 and Mathieu Bauderlique in August 2022 at 175 pounds. Smith has had a longer layoff than Beterbiev, almost 17 months. He won the WBA 168-pound title by stopping George Groves in seven rounds in September 2018 and successfully defended it twice before facing Alvarez. A victory for Beterbiev could lead directly to a meeting with Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed 175-pound championship.

ALSO FIGHT THIS WEEK

FRIDAY

Yuko Kuroki vs. Rie Matsuda, strawweights (for Kuroki’s WBA and WBO titles), Tokyo (no US television)

SATURDAY

Moussa Gholam vs. Lunga Sitemela, junior lightweight Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (DAZN) Fabiana Bytyqi vs. Tina Rupprecht, atomweights (for Bytyqi’s WBC title), Berlin (No TV in US.